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#WildGooseFestival @WildGooseFest peeps: Did you know that the region of NC/TN where we meet was pre-Civil War one of America's abolitionist hotspots? When the South seceded, they had to send Confederate troops to occupy the area to control the residents.
The Quakers who settled in nearby Greeneville published the nation's first abolitionist newspaper.
Most local politicians in the region also opposed the policy of Indian Removal of the US government.
Local Presbyterians founded the 28th college in the US there -- because they believed in the power of an educated citizenry. John Gloucester, a man freed from slavery, graduated from the school and was the 1st African-American to earn a college degree in the state of TN.
Presbyterians @WildGooseFest #WildGooseFestival will surely recognize Gloucester's name. He was the 1st African-American to be ordained in their denomination, and was pastor of First African Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, PA.
Early in the history of the region, residents petitioned to form their own state -- The State of Franklin, whose capitol was briefly in Greeneville, TN.
It is good to know this history -- Wild Goose is the heir of some powerful regional history of justice, tolerance, and equality.
And, as you drive home thru TN and into VA, if you use Hwy 11, know that it was once part of the Seneca Trail, aka "Great Indian Warpath," one of the most ancient roads in the United States, used by the Catawba, Algonquian tribes, the Cherokee & the Iroquois Confederacy.
